Monday, December 22, 2008

I'm currently stuck at SFO, where I've been since 6am. We were booked on a flight to Vancouver that was supposed to go through Seattle, which is apparently snowed in, or something. Our flight was cancelled, and we're now waiting for standby on a later flight. We were 38th on the standby list, but we're now about 20th, which still sucks, but is much better than before. I think that things have sucked for long enough that the airlines are doing what they can to get as many people out onto flights as possible.

Hopefully I'll get to the Okanagan before Christmas. If not, I'll be really pissed that I spent money on snow boots for nothing.

Oh well, at least I now know that I can darn socks using a pen and waxed dental floss.(you think I'm kidding, don't you?!?)

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I've read some really interesting articles lately, all of which deserve commentary and analysis, but I simply haven't had the energy to delve into them. I finally had to close the gazillions of tabs that I had open, simply because there's no chance of me actually writing about anything really substantive.

I'll point you in some fun directions, though:

If you like Neil Patrick Harris, or are just a nerd who enjoys musical comedy, check out his turn on Sesame Street in the guise of the Fairy Shoe Person. It's very nearly as good as Dr. Horrible.

Next up is a girl who surely has a remarkable future ahead of her. Her name is Zora Howard, and here she recites (performs, declares) the poem "I have Biracial Hair."

This girl kicks some serious ass, and this poem, which I heard right after reading a couple of really intense pieces on the role and impact of hair, both from a racial perspective and a femininity/gender role perspective, made ma laugh and cry, and then both again, and look, what do you know, I'm choked up again......

Sometime shortly, I will reprint a piece that my friend Emily wrote, on hair and all its implications.

One thing that occurs to me is that there is no one kind of "biracial hair." I think about "my" pre-k class, the 3 year old class at work that I positively adore (I'm hoping to spend the rest of the year with them, but we'll see). There are no fewer than 5 mixed race kids in a class of about 15. Each one of them has a totally unique "look." Zehlia has loose dark-brown/black curls like mine, Hazel has little teensy corkscrews, Sara's is more like Zora's (down to the two braids), Nikola and Niepa have denser, short, boy looks....And even though Zora's poem describes one kind of what she calls "biracial hair," she's also speaking to everyone who's got that experience of "What the hell is happening up there on my head?!?!"

So anyway, this girl (who's all of about 13, aparently) is rocking pretty righteously....

I hope everyone's holidays are good and fun and warm and dry and safe. I'll try to write again soon, providing I don't lose any fingers in Canada, what with its -25 degree weather (ugh....)

1 comments:

Hey Kat, I watched the Zora clip: It took me back to when you were little, and I'd be trying to comb out your curls. Wish someone had told me about the olive oil trick! Remember the little girl in your preschool class who had reeealy frizzy "biracial hair"? And kept begging her mom to fix her hair "Like Kat's"? Oh well. At least you've GOT hair!!~maman